Right-wing press cheer Bristol Palin

Tuesday 02 September 2008

The right-wing press has been surprisingly cheery in response to Republican VP candidate Sarah Palin's announcement that her 17-year old daughter Bristol is pregnant out of wedlock.

The announcement that Republican vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin’s 17-year old daughter Bristol is pregnant has threatened to rain on the GOP’s national convention. But the conservative pundits in the United States didn’t seem very shocked by the news. Reaction in the right-wing press and blogosphere has shown conservatives cheering on the Palins for their decision to keep the child and condemning the left-wing media for exploiting a family’s personal problems.

“I have not met a single Republican who thinks McCain should drop her because of this,” said Ramesh Ponnuru, well-known conservative DC pundit and senior editor of the right-wing US weekly The National Review, told FRANCE 24. Ponnuru, who is currently in St. Paul, Minnesota for the Republican National Convention, continued, “(The Palin family) has made the right choice: no abortion, and they’re getting married.” Asked if anything would make McCain drop Palin from the ticket, Ponnuru quipped, “Maybe if it turned out she was a serial killer or something. But not over something like this.”

Ponnuru’s view is shared by the likes of Ben Domenech on the right-wing blog Redstate.com, saying, “Sarah Palin is class personified...and she is 1/2 the reason Obama has already lost this election.”

One conservative blogger, Michelle Malkin, seized upon a quotation from Democratic candidate Barack Obama to make a point about the positive spin the Republicans have put on the issue. At a town hall meeting in Johnstown, Pennsylvania in March, Obama said, “Look, I got two daughters… I am going to teach them first about values and morals, but if they make a mistake, I don’t want them punished with a baby.” In response, Malkin writes, “One ticket sees (teen pregnancy) as a blessing. The other sees it as a curse. Could the core differences between the two be any starker?”

Along similar lines, Carol Platt Liebau on the right-wing site Town Hall condemns the Democratic triumph over the news, writing, “Can anyone even imagine the outcry had Chelsea Clinton been treated this way?” Michele Catalano also criticised the "Democratic smear machine" in a blog, writing, "If I’m rushing to the defense of a woman whose core ideologies I oppose, then something pretty bad must be going on. And that something smells like a pungent mixture of hypocrisy and desperation.”

Other right-wing bloggers are less sympathetic to the Palin plight. On townhall.com, a woman named Sarah leaves the following comment: “Can you say, ‘Jamie Lynn Spears’ (Britney Spears’ sister, who also got pregnant at 17 and drew media ridicule), I'm pregnant, I'm keeping my baby and I'm marrying my baby's daddy? Mitt Romney and Bobby Jindal are looking SO good right now!!”